John Glynn and Elizabeth McKee are the Open Pairs Champions at the Bermuda Bridge Club, winning the title by the slimmest of margins ( half a matchpoint!) from David Cordon and ace statistician Julia Lunn, with Alan Douglas and Bill Tucker a board behind in third. In fourth were first round leaders Jane Smith and Gertie Barker with Delmont and Marilynn Simmons in fifth.You will remember from last week that the first session was a really low scoring affair with 57 percent leading the field and some nine pairs close behind over 50 percent. The second session was not a lot different and with first round leaders Gertie Barker-Jane Smith falling off the pace it came down to a battle between the others just behind . Lunn-Cordon were in second place after the first session , half a matchpoint ahead off Glynn- Mckee and put together another solid 56.9 percent second session. This was just not enough, however, when the winners scored 57.38 percent to edge the second session by one matchpoint and win the event by half a matchpoint! Exciting stuff!Congratulations to John and Elizabeth who have done enough over the last couple of years to establish themselves comfortably among the top pairs in the club . They are both talented and thoughtful players with a fairly aggressive bidding style and their obvious commitment to the game is paying dividends .David and Julia have also started producing solid results and that is a tough loss to take they can, however, take heart from the two solid sessions. Bill and Alan, who would have been the bookies favourites at the start of the event, had the only 60 percent plus session of the event with a 61.43 percent second session but a poor first session left them with just too much to do .Congratulations to the winners!This week’s hand is a simple one for experienced players, but probably just outside the comfort zone of the intermediates ... and the only way to get comfortable with the plays involved is reading and practice.Board 13 Game All. Dealer North.S-643H0K562D-954C-K95S-105 S-J872H-94 H-QJ103D-J1032 D-876C-108743C- J2S-AKQ9H-A87D-AKQC-AQ6South opened Two Clubs with his rockcrusher and after hearing a 2diamond waiting bid from partner bid 2NT which partner raised 3NT. South now decided that looking for a Grand Slam was too much like hard work and bid to 6NT. West led the jack of diamonds .The inexperienced player sees that he has 11 tricks and if spades are 3-3 he has 12, so he wins the diamond and immediately goes after spades. When this fails he eventually succumbs to a one-trick defeat.The slightly better player sees that 3-3 diamonds will also work and after winning the diamond ducks a heart to the defence he wins the next trick , tries for 3-3 spades, then tries for 3-3 hearts and when both fail concedes one down!The better player is a little more patient. He also ducks a heart, wins the return but now before investigating the majors cashes all his minor suit winners look what happens to poor East when the last minor is cashed!S-643H-K56D-NoneC-5S-105 S-J872H-9 H-J103D-J D-NoneC-1087 C-NoneS-AKQ9H-A8D-NoneC-ANo matter which major he discards it hands declarer the contract … declarer has just executed a simple squeeze to make the hand … nice, and not really that difficult, is it?